B D 

^^\ 
orSgin and nature 

OF MAN 

BY 

S. B, G. McKlNNEY, M.A.. L.R.CP. (Edin.) 



Copyright, 1905 
By S, B. G, McKiNNEy 



BUFFALO, N. Y. 
1905 




Class:BP_42LL_ 

Book hm 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE 

ORIGIN AND NATURfe 
OF MAN 



/M 



BY 

S. B. G. McKINNEY, M.A., L.R.C.P. (Edin.) 



Copyright, 1905 
By S. B. G. McKiNNEY 



BUFFALO, N. Y. 
1905 



■^T^^ 



L;BfiA??Y of Om^iiE'^iS 

iwo iiopies jieceiv^ 

APR 18 1905 

A---.. --^^ , 



THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN 



THE BIBLK 



"For more than a thousand years the great 
majority of the most highly civilised and instructed 
nations in the world have confidently believed and 
passionately maintain that certain writings, which 
they entitle sacred, occupy a unique position in 
literature, in that they possess an authority different 
in kind, and immensely superior in weight, to that 
of all other books/' 

Such is the introductory sentence to Huxley's 
essays on ''Science and Hebrew Tradition"; and it 
correctly describes the attitude of all men of sound 
intelligence and clear knowledge towards the Bible, 
Not merely for more than one thousand years, but 
for more than three thousand years, the greatest 
thinkers have preserved Sacred Books with profound 
respect and reverence. Confucius described himself 
as one who loved and beUeved in the ancients; and 
long before the days of Confucius the wise men in 
Egypt and Asia treasured the wisdom handed down 



by the great primitive teachers of mankind. What 
gives Sacred Books their unique position? Works 
on agriculture and mechanics, which would teach 
something of the nature of the material world 
and of the physical laws governing phenomena, 
seem to the human animal of much more import- 
ance than theories respecting his origin and nature; 
and yet the most ancient writings of every nation 
that has an ancient literature treat of the super- 
natural or the spiritual. Man is a spirit, and there- 
fore cannot live by bread alone. The instinct to 
seek harmony with the Infinite Spirit is more vital 
to the normal man than the instinct to eat bread. 
Multitudes have died for their religion. 

Every Sacred Book deals, however imperfectly or 
erroneously, with formal and final causes, which are 
instinctively recognised as of permanent and supreme 
importance, but which are of no concern to any 
mere animal. The Whence, and Why, and Whither 
are discussed. What is the ideal condition? What 
are the means to be adopted in order to attain it? 
What does the Creator desire us to do? These are 
the questions of primary interest to the healthy mind. 
Modern references to the Creator as the Unknowable, 
or as a Power, or as Nature, are the result of artifi- 
cial parasitical conditions and spiritual degradation; 
for it is an axiom of consciousness that the Creator of 
an intelligent being must be of higher intelUgence 
than the creature. Men who stand alone never think 
of Grod as mere mechanical power. 



The Bible treats of the nature of man as Man, 
and as looked upon in comparison with the Perfect; 
and in order to be able to appreciate its teaching 
familiarity with its language is necessary. Those 
who have used it for regular reading and study in 
youth easily find in it a g\iide to the means of gaining 
the absolute health of mind, or harmony with the 
Creative Mind, which is called the possession of the 
Kingdom of Heaven; whereas it is regarded as little 
more than incoherent fragments of history and fable 
by those who have neglected the cultivation of the 
spiritual faculties, and who are not familiar with it. 

The first three chapters of Genesis may be regarded 
as the foundation of the Bible, and as containing the 
most ancient philosophy of primitive man of which 
we have any knowledge, dating back thousands of 
years before modern literature existed, and telling 
the relations of man to his Creator, to his wife, to 
animals and plants, and to the universe. There is 
no other document so intrinsically important and 
interesting. 

The first chapter of Genesis is as follows: — 

"In the beginning the Elohim created the heaven 
and the earth. 

*'And the earth was without form, and void; and 
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the 
Spirit of the Elohim moved upon the face of the 
waters. 

"And the Elohim said, Let there be light; and 
there was light. 



>'And the Elohim saw the light that it was good J 
and the Elohim divided the light from the darkness- 

"And the Elohim called the Ught Day, and the 
darkness He called Night. And the evening and the 
morning were the first day (or, there wf^ evening 
and there was morning, one day). 

"And the Elohim said, Let there be a firmament 
in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the 
waters from the waters. 

"And the Elohim made the firmament, and divided 
the waters which were under the firmament from 
the waters which were above the firmament: and it 
was so. 

"And the Elohim called the firmament Heaven. 
And the evening and the morning were the second day. 

"And the Elohim said, Let the waters under the 
heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let 
the dry land appear: and it was so. 

"And the Elohim called the dry land Earth; and 
the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. 
And the Elohim saw that it was good. 

"And the Elohim said. Let the earth bring forth 
grass, the herb yield seed, and the fruit trees yield- 
ing fruit after its kind whose seed is in itself, upon 
the earth: and it was so. 

"And the earth brought forth grass, and herb 
yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding 
fruit whose seed is in itself after its kind; and the 
Elohim saw that it was good. 



''And the evening and the morning were the third 
day. 

''And the Elohim said, Let there be lights in the 
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the 
night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, 
and for days, and years: 

"And let them be for lights in the firmament of 
the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it 
was so. 

"And the Elohim made two great lights; the 
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to 
rule the night. He made the stars also. 

"And the Elohim set them in the firmament of 
the heaven to give light upon the earth, 

"And to rule over the day and over the night, and 
to divide the Ught from the darkness. And the 
Elohim saw that it was good. 

' And the evening and the morning were the 
fourth day. 

"And the Elohim said. Let the waters bring 
forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, 
and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open 
firmament of heaven. 

"And the Elohim created great sea-monsters, and 
every living creature that moveth, which the waters 
brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every 
'winged fowl after its kind : and the Elohim saw that 
it was good. 

"And he Elohim blessed them' saying, Be fruit- 



ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and 
let fowl multiply in the earth. 

''And the evening and the morning were the fifth 
day. 

''And the Elohim said, Let the earth bring forth 
creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind : 
and it was so. 

"And the Elohim made the beast of the earth 
after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and every 
thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind: 
and the Elohim saw that it was good. 

"And the Elohim said, Let Us make man in 
Our image, after Our Ukeness, and let them have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl 
of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, 
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
earth. 

"So the Elohim created man in His own image, 
in the image of the Elohim created He him; male 
and female created He them. 

"And the Elohim blessed them, and the Elohim 
said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and 
replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
-moveth upon the earth. 

"And the Elohim said. Behold, I have given you 
every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of 
all the earth, and every tree in the which is the 
fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for 



''And to every beast of the earth, and to every 
fowl of the air, and to everything the creepeth upon 
the earth wherein there is Ufe, I have given every 
green herb for meat: and it was so. 
made, and, behold, it was very good. And the 
evening and the morning were the sixth day.^* 

Is it possible that this primitive account of the 
origin of things can be in any sort^of harmony with 
modern scientific knowledge? Can it be that prim- 
itive man, without any of the advantages of modern 
education, invented a theory of creation thousands 
of years ago worthy of consideration by a modern 
scholar? 

According to the primitive teaching of the Bible, 
the Divine Mind, or the Elohim, or the L. 0. M., 
created the heavens and the earth ■ 'in the begin- 
ning.*' So far as we can judge, science and imagi- 
nation will strive in vain to get beyond this in the 
contemplation of the origin of matter. 

The earth is described as "without form and 
void''; and there was darkness. The modern 
scholar may say that all was in a state of primi- 
tive nebulosity or homogeneous indefiniteness; and 
some minds have a feeling of satisfaction when 
using words of imposing length and sound, even 
when they add nothing to the significance of those 
which are simple. If no light was in existence we 
cannot beUeve that there was force of any kind, 
and therefore the matter must have been diffused 
in its original atoms; for no twotwo atoms could com- 



bine without the existence of light, or force that 
would imply Ught. whatever may be meant by 
the heavens, we must take it that the primitive 
iipilosopher intended to describe the earth as origia- 
ally incoherent and formless, and that is all the 
length that onr most advanced hpilosophers can go. 

The next proceeding, according to the Bible, was 
the creation of Ught; which must be understood 
as implying the creation of all he physical forces, 
since modern science proves that light is essential 
to the union of atoms into visible matter, or into 
the molecules, without which heat cannot be known. 
When the light was created the atoms combined 
into masses capable of producing shadows by inter- 
cepting the light. Hence it is said in Genesis that 
on the First Day the light was divided from the 
darkness. 

In order to understalid the Bible it is necessary 
to study it as a series of pictures which the primitive 
philosopher may have painted to express his thoughts 
before he had elaborated any language. First, we 
may suppose there was the All-seeing Eye; then 
there was the gloomy mass, without form and void; 
next there may have been the appearance of rays 
from the Eye, causing some irregularities upon the 
surface of the dark mass, and translated as the 
Spirit moving upon the face of the waters, or the 
sea of nebulosity; then there may have been the 
representation of a Hand moving darkness to one 
side and light to the other, so as t(? indicate a per- 



manent division. Science has now reached the 
stage of trying to penetrate this mystery, and to dis- 
cover how one body is made opaque and another 
transparent, or to prove that there^ is no more dif- 
ference between light and darkness than between 
different species of animals. 

There is then a break in the series of pictures to 
indicate that this was the First Day^ but as we are 
fnormed that the sun and moon were appointed 
afterwards to regulate time, so that our day of 
twenty-four hours could not have been instituted, 
the Day of Creation must have meant an indefinite 
period; and, as the period was supposed to be 
appreciable by Omnipotence, we may suppose it to 
have been may millions of years. During this 
period the force was acting on the matter so as to 
form the inorganic world. God does not hurry. 

Next we are shown the matter accumulated into 
enormous masses so as to iorm the earth and the 
heavenly bodies. We may suppose that the teacher 
painted a sky that appeared solid, and tried to show 
the separation of the water in the sea from the i- 
visible water which descends as rain. How was 
the earth dried and hardened to the proper consis- 
tency? The establishment of a proper balance be- 
tween the moisture on the earthand the amount in the 
air available as rain seemed to the primitive phil- 
osopher such a marvellous display of careful fore- 
thought that he described it as occupying the whole 
of the Second Day. 



Is this less marvellous to modern science? 

How many internal fires and external floods were 
needed to form the paste into solid mountains sur- 
rounded by vast oceans? If there was a molten 
mass it had to cool; and if it was at the temperature 
supposed by geologists, there could be no! possibility 
of water remaining upon it. One might as well 
expect water to lie upon the flame of a furnace. 
Where did the water come from to fill the hollows? 
Where did the hydrogen exist before it was burned? 
Where was the oxygen? Is th^ere an unknown 
store of water between the^arth and the sun? The 
cooling of a volcanic mass is not considered a pro- 
bable source of water. 

When the earth was cooled sufficiently to permit 
moisture to lie upon it the work of forming dry 
land began. Some parts were elevated and others 
depressed, so that the water might be drained off into 
the hollows. Then no time was lost in utilising the 
solid portion for the support of life. Some of the 
inorganic material was converted into organic form; 
and millions of years may have been employed by 
microscopic fungi in preparing the earth for the 
growth of forest trees. The soil was gradually 
enriched by the decomposition of low forms of 
vegetable life; and there is no mention of animal 
life, which seems a mistake. Vegetable life must 
have come first to support the animal, but how can 
it have needed a whole Day to itself? Perhaps the 
explanation of this is the necessity of forming stores 



of coal and petroleum; but there were animals iii 
Existence when some of the coal was formed. Some 
tnethod must have been adopted of allowing vege- 
table growth to accumulate so enormously, and the 
period occupied is described as the Third Day. 

It is quite contrary to the common modern notion 
of the proper order or events to leave the formation 
of the Solar System until the Fourth Day; and yet 
the primitive theory may be correct. We have learn- 
ed to think of the movements of the heavenly bodies 
as essential. Revelations of the ancient animal and 
vegetable Ufe in the polar regions indicate that 
the whole surface of the earth has been densely 
occupied by animals in a manner which could not 
have been possible if the present arrangements of 
solar influence had been in operation. Heat must 
have been diffused over the earth in a manner which 
science does not explain. Geologists inform us 
tha there was once a great glacial period for parts of 
the earth now seldom visited by snow; while it has 
also been proved that regions now doomed to per- 
petual winter were at one time in the enjoyment 
of tropical heat and luxuriant vegetation. Does 
h Uttle alteration of the earth's inclination to the 
sun explain all? Had the heavenly bodies not been 
set spinning? Had sufficient force not accumulated 
to maintain the various bodies in their revolutions 
and rotations? The present division of time into 
days, and nights, and seasons, was made by setting 
all the wonderful machinery in motion, and the force 



needed may well have occupied a number of Days in 
accumulating. It is possible that future philosophers 
may come to the conclusion that the arrangement of 
the Solar System was not completed until late in the 
order of creation, and that the work was sufficient 
to occupy the Fourth Day; but, m any case, the 
profundity of the thought remains. 

The Fifth Day of Creation is said to have been 
spent in producing everything that lives in the water 
and in the air, w^hile no land animals are mentioned; 
and this statement is remarkable from the zoological 
point of view; for it is only within the past few years 
that the relation between birds and fishes has been 
recognised, and before that relation was discovered 
no one would have of thought of associating birds with 
fishes as their companions in creation. It may be 
that the primitive teacher painted fishes and flying 
animals as the product of the Fifth Day; and thus 
he would include, as by intuition, the gigantic flying 
reptiles since found along with fishes in the fossil 
records of the history of the earth. 

The Sixth Day was occupied in causing the force 
to act on the matter so as to produce all forms of 
animal life; and after these had been produced man 
appears upon the scene. In order to express the 
magnitude of the work^ and the enormous duration 
of each period, Omnipotence is represented as weary. 

The Divine Mind is said to have ceased from work 
on the Seventh Day.This seews to mean that no 
further new creations were produced, and that every- 



thing was left free from manifest supernatural inter- 
felrehce, so that man might work with confidence to 
litilise all the stores pro\dded for his enjoyment. 

We may suppose, if we please, that the atoms 
of matter first formed were all of one kind, and that 
they were all atoms of hydrogen. We may further 
suppose that the Ught caused sixteen atoms of hy- 
drogen to unite in some pecuUar manner to form an 
atom of oxygen, and fourteen to combine to form an 
atom of nitrogen, and one hundred and twenty-seven 
to combine to form iodine, and so on. The rays of 
light may have accumulated in the matter so as 
to cause the molecular movements we recognise 
as heat, and the incomprehensible influences we 
recognise as electricity, and chemical action an 
gravitation. Thus the formation of the earth, 
according to the Bible, may have been the result 
of the combinations of atoms of hydrogen under the 
influence of hght. Science seems to show that the 
atmosphere of the sun is composed of burning 
hydrogen. Such combustion would require oxygen, 

* and the result would be water, unless we suppose 
some less Hkely form of chemical combination to 
have taken place. 

The account in the Bible will permit us to fancy 
that the light caused the atoms to aggregate so as to 
form nebulae; and that the nebulae united to form 
comets; and that the nebulae and comets united to 

. form planets. The intensity of the Ught and heat 
given out by the bodies would be proportionate to 



their bulk, and the velocitk with which they rushed 
into collision. Combinations may have been brought 
about by violent collisions and intense heat, which 
resulted in the production of unstable compounds' 
like chloride of nitrogen in the centre of the heavenly 
bodies; and the resulting explosion may have sent 
the star or planet flying through space in showers of 
meteors and meteoric dust, as the earth may be bown 
up some day. 

No theory can begin without assuming the exist- 
ence of matter and force. The Creator had to keep 
control of all, so that the atom of oxygen should 
always consist of sixteen atoms of hydrogen and no 
more so long as the earth and man endure; other- 
wise there would be the possibility of change in 
its composition, and there could be no science 
of cheiltiistry. We may suppose the existence of 
isomeric varieties of oxygen, and we may regard 
sulphur as a polymeric form of oxygen, and say that 
its atom is composed of thirty -two atoms of hydrogen ; 
but however we may let our fancy wander, we must 
believe that there was an original command which 
fixed the composition of each element so that it 
should always be the same under the 3ame conditions. 

Philosophers even of modern times have been dis- 
posed to regard the sun as the ultimate source of all 
light and heat; but the primitive hpilosopher taught 
that it was created after Ught, and is merely a special 
means of storing force so as to allow the various 
portions of the earth to receive supplies at regular 



intervals, and thus to facilitate the carrying out of 
the jaw of nature that all labour must be followed 
by a period of repose. The prodigality with which 
the sun lavishes heat and light at all times and in all 
directions is in keeping with the infinite abundance 
of all ht stores of nature. 

It is worth remarking that every day han its 
''evening and morning''; and this statement, so 
carefully repeated, probably refers to the slow and 
gradual mode in which Creation took place and it is 
in wonderful contrast to the thought that comes 
naturally to man that everything must have been 
created instantiineously by a sudden command. Wd 
should expect the morning of a day to be mentioned 
before the evening; and as every word in the Bible- 
and especially in this brief record, must be carefully 
weighed, we must seek for the profound thought that 
causes every day to begin with an evening and en(| 
With the morning. There v/as no evening, as 
generally understood, to any of the days of Creation, 
for the day is taken as beginning when all hope of 
life appears to reason without faith to have died; 
and this period is succeeded by night of utter dark- 
ness, so far as human wisdom can discern, but it is 
really the period of incubation to be foUov/ed by the 
steadily-increasing light of morning when life comes 
forth. None of the days of Creation were assisted 
by special act of Omnipotence beyond their ''morn- 
ing,'' since they were intended to develop into the full 
blaze of noon, so ^? to furnish material for the obser- 



vation and for the instruction and enjoyment of man. 

The cessation in the ^Imorning'' may be used as 
an argument in favour of a modified evolution 
theory, involving only six distinct acts of super- 
natural power, given as impulses to begin a long 
series of evolutional processes; ,but this interpre- 
tation would destroy the harmony of ideas involved 
in supposing the work to be so great and continuous 
that the Creative Mind requ red to rest, and we know 
that the Creator did not rest for any interval until all 
was finished, for science teaches us that no break in 
the work is perceptible until every species had been 
produced. 

We may reasonably suppose that the conditions of 
heat and moisture were at first particularly favour- 
able for the loTest forms of vegetable life to carry 
on their work of decomposing inorganic compounds 
in order to build up organic bodies, which, by decay- 
ing, would form a soil suitable for the maintenance 
of higher forms of vegetation; and the delay in the 
production of land animals may have had some con- 
nection with the need of allowing vegetable life 
special facilities for growth in order to store up force 
for the future use of man. The elevation of the 
parts of the crust of the earth that contained special 
accumulations of the fruits of the work of vegetable 
and animal Ufe may have been necessary either for 
the development of special forms of animals, or for 
the use and pleasure of man; and when lagoons and 
swamps became replaced by blains and mountains. 



many species of animals that had served their pur^ 
pose, or that might have been injurious to the new 
species, were allowed to become extinct. 

The account of Creation given in Genesis is very 
commonly misunderstood and misrepresented. Few 
people study it seriously for themselves. With, the 
exception of the separate creation of man there is no 
mention of original creation except of matter and 
force. The Divine Mind is not said to have created 
plants or animals, but to have commanded, ^'Let 
the earth bring forth grass,'' etc. The force was to 
act upon the matter so as to transform inorganic into 
organic material. Thus it would appear that vital 
force is not essentially different from the physical 
forces, but is a peculiar combination of them; and 
yet e must not forget that Omnipotence had to 
give the impulse to begin the growth of the first 
vegetable germ. It was just as easy for the Creator 
to cause the production of a milHon varieties of 
vegetable life as one; but all had to be connected 
as the harmonious design of the Perfect Architect, 
so that man might not be bewildered when studying 
them. 

Vegetable Hfe did not pass into animal life by 
natural generation, though there is no essential 
difference between them. The lowest forms of 
plant life may have required ages to make the earth 
fit to prouce higher forms; but millions of age 
were of no consequence to the Infinite Creator 
As soon as the necessary food was prepared, the 



Divine Mind said^ *'Let the waters bring forth 
abundantly the moving creature," etc. Thus the 
first animal life was in the water, according to th 
Bible; and ages may have elapsed before the earth 
was dry enough for the production of animals capable 
of living entirely upon land. 

There is permanent distinction between species 
according to the Bible. We are told that the earth 
brought forth grass and herb, yielding seed after its 
kind; and that ''the Elohim made the beast of the 
earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind.'* 
The frequent repetition of the words ''after their 
kind" signifies that a fresh command was given 
every time the development of the earth warranted 
the production of a new species. Evolutionists say 
that it is difficult to beheve that the Creator inter- 
fered for the production of each species; and then 
they encounter the far greater diflSculty of attempt- 
ing to believe that a particle of vegetable matter 
went on steadily advancing from one stage of evolu- 
tion to another until it ended in the production of 
man. The demands on credulity do not even stop 
here, for we must suppose that the Uttle vegetable 
had a steady desire to develop into something higher, 
which is more than most men have. The miracles 
of the Bible are simple natural results when compared 
with the utterly confounding miracle of evolution 
without supernatural interference. The vegetable 
germ would deserve oiu* homage as the Almighty. 



Why should the Creator have stopped at the pro- 
duction of fungus, or atoms? 

All animals are said to have been produced by 
the earth in obedience to the command of the Ore* 
ator. ''And the Elohim said, Let the earth bring 
forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and 
creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its 
kind: and it was so/' The creeping things here 
mentioned may have been small land animals, or 
some reptile forms late in appearance, and distinct 
from those shown in the picture of fishes, flying 
things, and birds. 

The earth did not bring forth man. There was 
special creation needed, though he was formed of 
the dust of the earth, and is in substance and in 
structure one vAth the brutes. There is a gulf be- 
tween man and animals such as does not exist 
between different species of animals, or even between 
animals and plants. 'The Elohim created man in 
His Own Image: in the Image of the Elohim created 
He him; male and female created He them.'* 

If we are very anxious to keep as far as possible 
from thinking clearly of the Divine Mind, we may 
say that man was made of the dust by majestic laws 
acting over vast epochs until he had become fit for 
the inbreathing of a higher nature. That must mean 
that there were once men who were not men, but 
only animals, incapable of spiritual consctousness. 
Such is not the teaching of the Bible, nor the teach- 
ing of reason or of history. 



If men had preserved and studied in reference 
the brief philosophy of the primitive teacher there 
would ^never have been idolitary, or superstition, or 
general degradation; but the foolish son neglects the 
counsels of his father, and makes experiments for him- 
self without the guidance of previous experimenters. 
A fluent chatterer who has never stood alone will 
condemn with confidence the most profound doc- 
trines of ancient sages. In the very first chapter 
of Genesis the complete subjection of animals, and 
plants, and all material thitigs, to the Creator, is 
plainly and emphatically affirmed; yet after thou- 
sands of years we find intelligent men looking on 
the new moon as a possible gcverncr of riches, and 
standing in awe of charlatans who pretend to see in 
the stars the power of dominating human destiny. 
Whole nations have invested with mysterious sanctity 
some mountain, or river, or grove, or tree; elephants, 
/and cows, or apes, and even crocodiles have been 
treated with reverential awe; and human beings 
have been sacrificed to appease the demon of some 
particular locality supposed to be able to blight or 
bless. Those who have floundered in the mud of 
Greek and Indian mythology until feady to cling 
to any dogma of materialism or animalism may 
well exclaim with Caliban when their eyes are opened 
to the spiritual truth and beauty of the primitive 
wisdom in Genesis:— 



^T\\ be wise hereafter, 
And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass 
Was I to take this drunkard for a god, 
And worship this dull foolT' 

According to the most ancient theology, the Creator 
was well pleased with all His works, and declared 
all to be very good. Man was His child, made in 
His image, provihed for with parental care and 
affection, and even given all things for his use and 
enjoyment, but with the distinct understanding that 
if he ate stones for bread he would suffer indigestion, 
iu spite of all repentance and prayers. The primitive 
teaching was that ''God is good, and His mere 
endureth for ever^'; and the primitive man heard 
the angels singing, "Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, goodwill tov/ards men.'' 

What was the consequence of neglect to study the 
first three chapters of Genesis as guide? Thos 
without the primitive wisdom could not help recog- 
nising the Creator as Infinite Power, manifested by 
earthquake, and storm, and pestilence, as well as by 
sunshine, and shower, and harvest; Pov/er apparent- 
ly dehghting in suflFering and destruction; and there- 
fore appropriately symbolised by the car of Jugger- 
naut demanding human victims. Without the primi- 
tive guidance men v/orship demons of cruelty that 
must be propitiated by self-torture and self-destruc- 
tion; or they wander hopelessly among bewildering 
forces and imaginary influences, so that they may 



even become so degraded as to dread a number' 
whether seven, or nine, or thirteen. The modern 
rationalist, with all his advantages of education, only 
knows Nature as "red in tooth and claw," and knows 
nothing of Jehovah conversing with Man in the 
Garden. The Infinite Mind remains to scientific 
recearch the Unknoable, because the Formal Cause 
can only be known by those who cultivate the garden 
of the soul. 

Every part of the Bible was \\Titten to teach 
spiritual truth, and not to prevent the existence ofX 
spiritual truth, and not to prevent the exercise of 
intellect. Man would have been a helpless, hope- 
less orphan if alone upon the earth without con- 
sciousness of communion with the Creator. Those 
who quite lost the original teaching became at once 
the slaves of unseen and unknowable powers, liable to 
be terror-stricken by every novel sight of sound, as we 
have abundance evidence of even in the present day. 
Progress and happiness would never have been pos- 
sible if the wise primitive man had not known the 
confidence and security arising from knowledge of the 
Creator. The Spirit witnessed with his spirit that he 
was the child of God. 

The materialist sees the earth as the mother of all 
life, and, therefore, as a natural object of reverence; 
but the primitive teacher pointed up to the Heavenly- 
Father* What could the intellectual human animal 
find more worthy of adc ration than light? Adam 
taught that light had to come into existence and dis- 



appear at the bidding of the Divine Mind. Nothing is 
conceived b}^ the materialist as superior to the sun, 
moon and stars, and the expanse of the heavens; but 
Adam taught that they are mere storehouses made by 
the Creator to regulate the supply of light and heat. 

All elementary teaching must be based upon the 
phenomena which nature presents to the senses before 
any artificial methods of study have been brought 
into use. We must speak to a child of the rising 
and setting of the sun, though we may believe that 
the sun is stationary while the earth moves. The 
primitive teacher may have beUeved that thesu 
moves round the earth, or that the earth is flat, and 
that the sun is moved by the direct interposition of 
the Creator. He may have thought that there is a 
soUd transparent material midway between the earth 
and the sun, or that there is a vast expanse of frozen 
moisture that needs to be restrained from thawing 
and flooding the earth, or that there is a subtle 
substance which modern science describes as ether. 
Such beliefs or opinions would not affect his abiUty 
to give an infallible revelation of the fundamental 
truths regarding reUgion and morahty if he had a 
perfect mind. He had the wisdom to avoid giving 
any opinion on subjects he did not understand, and 
to confine his teachings to the records of personal 
experience by means of perfect symbols. 

The second chapter of Genesis is supposed by some 
critics to be inconsistent with the first, whereas it 
ought to be regarded as a separate series of pictures 



dealing with man as a spirit inhabiting a mind. It 
is ^s follows: 

'Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, 
and all the host of them. 

''And on the seventh day the Elohim finished His 
work which He had made; and He rested on the 
seventh day from all His work which He had made. 

"And the Elohim blessed the seventh day and 
hallowed it: because that in it He had rested from 
all His work wi c the Elohim had created and made, 

"These are the generations of the heavens and of 
the earth when they were created, in the day that 
Jehovah, the Elohim, made the earth and the heavens 

"And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, 
and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for 
Jehovah, the Elohim, had not caused it to rain upon 
the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; 

"But there went up a mist from the earth, and 
watered the whole face of the ground. 

"And Jehovah, the Elohim, formed man of the 
dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life; and man became a living soul. 

"And Jehovah, the Elohim, planted a garden 
eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man whom 
He had formed. 

"And out of the ground made Jehovah, the Elohim, 
to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, 
and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst 
of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good 
^)fid evil. 



"And a river went out of Eden to water the 
garden; and from thence it was parted, and became 
four heads. 

'The name of the first is Pison: the is it which 
compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there 
is gold; 

"And the gold of that land is good: there is 
bdeUium and the odyx stone. 

**And the name of the second river is Gihon: the 
same as that which compasseth the whole land of 
Cush. 

"And the name of the third river is Iliddekel: 
that is it which goeth tov.ards the cast of Assyria. 
And the fourth river is Euphrates. 

"And Jehovah, the Elohim, took the man, and 
put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to 
keep it. 

"And Jehovah, the Elohim, commanded the man, 
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest 
freely eat: 

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that 
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 

"And Jehovah, the Elohim, said, It is not good 
that the man should be alone; I will make him an 
help meet for him. 

"And out of the ground Jehovah, the Elohim, 
formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the 
air; and brought them unto the man to see what he 



would call them: and whatsoever the man called 
every living creature, that was the name thereof. 

''And the man gave names to the cattle, and to the 
fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but 
for the man there was not found an help meet for 
him. 

''And Jehovah, the Elohim, caused a deep sleep 
to fall upon the man, and he slept: and He took one 
of his fibs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 

"And the rib which Jehovah, the Elohim, had 
taken from the man, builded He into a woman, and 
brought her unto the man. 

"And the man said. This is now bene of my bones, 
and flesh of flesh: she shall be called Woman, be- 
cause she was taken out of Man. 

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his 
mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they 
shall be one flesh. 

"And they were both naked, the man and his 
wife, and were not ashamed." 

Many of the critics of the Bibhcal account of 
creation forget their language was in its infancy a 
few thousand years ago, and that profound thoughts 
and moral precepts had to be taught by symbol and 
allegory. He who uses a word already made has 
seldom the clear mental vision of the idea impUed 
which the inventor of the word had. "Intellect" is a 
word now in common use by multitudes who do not 
appreciate its deriyation or meaning; but the in- 
ventor of it had to see the faculty of the mind select- 



ing concepts and weaving them into harmoniously 
connected texture of thought in reasoning, so that a 
picture of a weaver might have been used by him to 
signify intellect. Before the word ^^intricate*^ was 
invented the idea may have been expressed by a 
picture of an animal in a net, or of a man in a maze 
The root idea needs to be studied. 

There are important differences between the first 
chapter of Genesis and the second. In the first the 
Creator is regarded simply as the Originator of all 
things, and is described as the Elohim, or the Divine 
Mind. In the second and third chapters He is 
regarded in His relation to man as the Friend, the 
Helper, the Moral Governor, the Saviour, the Judge; 
and hence is described as Jehovah, the Elohim, 
which is translated as the Lord God. 

The first chapter deals with the origin of the uni- 
verse, and teaches man his relation to the material 
world, to light and darkness, to land and water, to 
sun and moon, to plants and animals, and the 
supremacy of God over all. There is no other such 
original teaching with regard to these fundamental 
questions; and no one who accepts the teaching can 
possibly be an idolater. Have the sages of Rome, 
or Greece, or India, or China, produced any such 
account of creation, and of the relation of m.an to 
God, even with the aid of the accumulated teaching 
of thousands of years? Why not? The primitive 
teacher, the prince of all philosophers, saw truth in 
the clear light of spiritual vision before the learning 



of artificial words had produced confusion of thought 
and before moral corruption had made him degene- 
rate, so that he ceased to seek wisdom by sohtary 
communion with the Creator. 

The second chapter of Genesis proclaims the 
nature of man. The animal man, one m substance, 
and to a great extent one in structure, mth tne 
brutes, has a spirit breathed into him, and is made 
in the image of his creator. He is an elohim, or 
mind; and he walks erect, with his face towards 

heaven. j v, „^ 

The second chapter finds the ground barren, 

though the first chapter left it clothed in verdure. 

In the first there is the material; in the second the 

material is the symbol. The man had not awoke to 

spiritual consciousness; and the earth was a bl. n ., 

without meaning or use, until recognised by man as 

the revelation of the Creator. We cannot form a 

notion of an island created to remam for ever ^^i"i- 

out any intelUgent being to take interest in it. lo 

respect the mind in a state of unawakened <?nergie^, 

when no passion had been aroused, and no dehmte 

responsibility recognised, a picture of the ground 

may have been painted mthout any hving thing, 

or any product of life, upon it. No products of the 

human mind had any existence until responsibility 

was voluntarily assumed. There was not a »ian 

to till the ground, or a human spirit at active worK. 

If nothing had been shown in the painting but tne 

barren ground it might have signified a s.ate ~c. 



death or the entire absence of all mental hfe, which 
would not have been a correct description of the 
mind at first. The vapour rising from the ground 
indicated the existence of potential thought and 
mental products as dormant in the mere animal 
man; but since they had not taken definite form, 
there could only be an indefinite mist. There never 
had been prayer for assistance or blessing, si ce 
there never had been consciousness of need; and 
dence it is said that no rain had been sent down from 
heaven. 

The mist is described as ascending, and as pre- 
paring the earth by watering it, not only before any 
plant or herb had sprung up, but even before man 
had been created out of the dust oof the ground. 
The whole animal creation was in existence, manifest- 
ing the degree of intelhgence bestowed upon it, and 
so there was a mist; but the most highly endowed 
animal cannot produce any thought ascending 
towards heaven, or any aspiration worthy of repre- 
sentation by the symbol of the tiniest herb. 

How the man was produced out of the dust is the 
problem that perplexes the materiaUst who beheves 
in the production of speciess by a natural law of 
evolution. There is no natural law that would ever 
transform a sheep into any other animal; though 
natural law will make it vary in size, and in other 
respects, with change of environment. Each species 
has been created to maintain permanent according to 
its formal cause so long as mankind needs it. 



The Creator could have made an infinite number 
of animal forms more and more closely resembling 
man, and then could have modified a germ so as to 
produce a perfect human animal. That would not 
have been evolution by natural law, but a miracle 
confounding natural laws by producing man with 
perfect mind from animals v/ithout speech. However 
it has done, we have the fact that the primitive think- 
er was made capable of giving a more profound ac- 
count of the ature of man than any modern philcsc- 
pher could invent for himself, and was thus superior 
mentally and morally to any man now existing. 

The products of the spiritual nature were repre- 
sented by the primitive teacher as vapour that has a 
tendency to ascend towards heaven Uke incense, and 
spiritual bless ngs were painted as the rain which 
descends from heaven; while the products of the 
mind, acting in obedience to the spirit after the 
assumption of responsibiUty, were painted as trees 
and plants. The mind is the Garden ini which the 
spirit exists; and the spirit has the consciousness of 
the possession of mind. 

When man was in harmony with the Divine Mind, 
every Tree that was pleasant to the sight or good for 
food grew out of the ground; by which it was sig- 
nified that every intellectual accompUshment, and 
every emotional enjoyment that can produce un- 
alloyed happiness, are possessed by the man who 
acts in harmony with the Will of the Divine Mind. 
The ''Tree of Life'' was then in the midst of the 



Garden, since perfect happiness and satisfaction vras 
a central abiding possession of the ccnsciousness; and 
yet the ''Tree of Knowledge of Gocd annd Evii'V 
was also present in the Garden of llic nrdnd, since 
man knew the good from the evil, and exercised his 
will inichoosing the good, and in refraining from the 
evil; so that perfect happiness existed along with 
free will. 

The Creator bestowed upon man the spirit rf activ- 
ity, which prompts him to find enjoyment in the grat- 
ification of his intellect and emotions, and to satisfy 
his curiosity even in opposition to v;hat he knows to 
be the command of the Elohim. The Ivlan was to 
till the Garden; and this pict'jre condemmed in 
anticipation the heresy of men like Buddha, wHo 
regard the activity of the emotions and the will rs 
an evil to be got rid of, instead of as a gift for which 
to be thankful. 

When man had thus become active in the per- 
formance of works according to his own judgment 
and desire, the painter taught that he still continued 
in perfect happiness so long as his conduct was regu- 
lated according to the dictates of his conscience; 
and to describe this he made a painting representing 
man as placed in a garden ''planted eastward" in 
Eden. The spirit, or ego, or consciousness, or 
whatever we may term the individual possessor cf 
conscious existence, was pictured as a man looking 
towards the light in a garden situated so that the 
rising sun was shining on it; and therefore Moses^ 



or whoever interpreted the pictures, described it 
■as ^^planted eastward/^ and the condition of con- 
sciousness was expressed in the v/crd ''Eden-/' 
which means ^'dehghf' or ''bliss/' So long as the 
Sun of Righteousness is shining on the Garden cf 
the mind of man, the ''ego" placed within the mind 
is in a state of perfect happiness. 

The sense of happiness is increased by the cultiva- 
tion of the mind; and the Creator intended men to 
enjoy the fullest dehght that can be produced by the 
satisfaction and highest development of 'all his facul- 
ties. Reward is in proportion to the use made of the 
talents; and he who tries to preserve his talent 
treasured up will always find thai it beccmes corrupt, 
and leads to his ruin. 

The spirit, ego, or Man, depends upon the fertiUty 
of the mind for all consciousness of happiness. How 
could the teacher without words express this idea? 
The life of the mind was represented as a River; for 
its fertiUty, and even its existence as a Garden 
depends upon the fertilising streams produced by its 
own activity. No man finds happiness by the works 
of others. 

How could the primitive teacher give an analysis 
of the mind? How could he refer to such abstract 
things as memory, and intellect, and emotion, an 
will? Artificial signs and sounds had not been 
inventetl capable of conveying to others any notion 
of abstract ideas. The phenomena of mind were 
necessarily expressed in metaphors. 



Modern psychologists make the mistake of attem.pt- 
ing to study the human mind \vithcut knowing the 
Divine Mind. The great teachers of the past knew 
that all wisdom existed first in the Creative Mind; 
and, how marvellous it may seem to the modern 
teachers who regard themselves as vastly improved 
by evolution, primitive men knew mhat they meant 
by the Elohm, and Athanasius had a perfectly 
certain consciousness of the existence of God as the 
Trinity of Persons. In proportion as man gains 
kno:wledge of the Divine Mind he gains knowledge of 
the' human mind, since man possesses the attributes 
of his Heaven-Father. 

An unlettered man can easily think of the Creator 
as Governor, Judge, or Father, and may even have 
an advantage over the scholar in facility of con- 
ceiving the Ideal Man as Son of the Creator. Prim> 
itive man, compelled to think in pictures, could see 
in his own mind the ideas of the square, and the 
circle and the sphere; and knew instinctively that 
the archetypal ideas of them must have existed in 
the Creative Mind. He saw the spiritual as the real, 
and the material as the expression of ideas. By the 
light of conscience the Ideal Man was seen just as 
certainly as the idea of a square; and there could 
be no more tendency to fancy the evolution of man 
than the evolution of a square. 

The River, which is the Ufe in the centre of the 
mind, was painted as dividing into 'Tour Heads/' 
ajtwi not merely iis giving of! four braiicbes. A 



branch of a river implies the previous existence of a 
more complete river, which is independent of the 
branch and superior to it; but no element of the 
. mind can exist previous to the other elements, and 
therefore the River was painted as rising at once in 
Four Heads. 

The First River of the mind was painted as en- 
ling all the Land where there is ; Gold and Pre- 
cious Stones; and those imagine that the account 
in Genesis refers to physical rivers, forget that 
no river would be likely to flow round any place 
in a circle without branching, and also forget that 
no river ever known rises in four heads to go dif- 
ferent ways. The Gold and Precious Stones meant 
all the knowledge that is valuable to man; and 
the River which encircles all knowledge, and is 
the essential support of his fertility and existence, is 
the Memory. The simplest exercise of the intellect 
is impossible without meory; the mother cannot 
have the slightest love for her child without mmeory; 
and the will cannot be exercised in performing a 
moment^s wiork ^^dthout memory. Memory can 
accomplish nothing of itself, and therefore the 
painter represented it as a circle to produce fer- 
tility, but flowing nowhere. 

The Second River was also described as a circle, 
and it enclosed the whole land of Ethiopia, or the 
land which is always warmed by the sun, and is 
symbolical of the emotional element of mind; for 
love has in all ages been spoken of as a flame or 



as something vrarm. Hence the Second Ri\^er 
painted is the Intellect, which is the parent of 
emotion, and therefore shown as encircling it; and 
which is shown as flowing in a circle, because in- 
tellect, hke memory, can of itself produce no evidenc 
of its existence. In order that we may know the 
existence and the ability of an intellect, we must 
have some display of emotion and of will. 

The Third River differs from the t^vo previous 
ones in not forming a circle, and it was painted as 
flowing towards the East, and as bounding part of 
Assyria. This river v/as Emotion, as revealed in 
the active mind; and it was represented as flowing 
towards the east, or towards the sun, in order to 
convey the idea of warmth, and the longing for 
fellowship with the Elohim. Since the painting 
was that of the mind of a perfect man, or of one in 
harmony with the Elohim, the only emotion that 
was represented was love; for love in the perfect 
miud is the dominant emotion. In the present day 
the description would not apply to a very great 
multitude, since the steady flow towards the east, 
or the natural longing for the sympathy of the 
Creator, has been lost, and the emotion is very apt 
to flow away from the light and warmth of heaven. 

There is no termination to the Third River, 
since emotion is ever seeking new objects on which 
to exercise itself, and love is intensified by exercise 
and is always flowing into action. The symbol 
which was used to represent that which is noble in 



action was aften\^ards adopted as the emblematic 
symbol of the founder of the Assyrian empire; and 
it was probably a llion with eagle's mngs, .for that is 
the symbol which Daniel gives for Assyria, and his 
language as a true prophet must have corresponded 
with that of Hebrew hieroglyphics in order to be 
accepted as part of the sacred writings. The Third 
River bounded or influenced only a part of Assyria, 
and that was the part towards the East; for action 
is only partly under the influence of emotion in tho 
perfect mind, and is for the greatest part under the 
dominion of intellect. Only healthy emotion is in 
harmony with the Elohim, or the Divine Mind. 

The Fourth River did not form a circle, nor fxow 
in any special directon, nor bound any particular 
country, and it is simply said to be the ''Euphrates." 
The Euphrates was the largest river ^^'ith which the 
primitive teacher had any acquaintance, and he saw 
in the source of fertiUty and blessing. In pro- 
phetic language the ''drying up of the river" meant 
the decay of strength and the diminution of resources, 
while the continuous and abundant flow was em- 
blematic of prosperity and power. Hence the 
Fourth River is the Will, which cannot be con- 
fined within any circular Umit, or by the boundary 
of any particular collection of thoughts and desires, 
but bursts all bounds by which it may be temporarily 
fettered, and seeks the Qpen ocean of perfect free- 
dom. It was the Euphrates that fertilised the 
land, and it is only by the exercise of the will that 



the mind can be fertilised; for memcry cannot 
be cultivated and improved unless by efToris of the 
will to recall events stored up ; the intellect can never 
be developed to perfection unless the vdll determines 
that a steady course of study shall be followed; £nd 
love itself becomes shrunken and diseased unless 
exercised by the will upon suitable objects. It is 
only by the exercise of the will in harmony with the 
♦Archetypal Will that the Eden of perfect happiness 
can be acquired or retained. 

The painter thus represeiited the human mind ^s 
composed of Intellect, Emotion, and Will, with 
Memory encircling them and forming the essential 
condition of their fertiUty and their Uie; and to him 
the memory bore the same relation to intellect, 
emotion, and will, as the blood bears to the brain, 
and nerves, and muscles. The blood is the essential 
vitaUsing fluid, wishout which the brain cannot do 
intellectual work, nor the nerves indicate emotions, 
nor the muscles obey the will in producing movement; 
the brain is the parent of the nerves, as the intelect 
is the parent of emotion; and the action of the muscles 
in performing work is partly governed by the brain 
acting through the nerves, and partly by the nerves 
acting independently of the brain, as the will is 
partly governed by the intellect, and partly by the 
emotion, while the exercise of the muscles is the 
essential condition which must be obeyed in order to 
have healthy blood, or brain, or nevers. 

Primative man had not learned anatomy and 



physiology so as to see this revelation of the Trinity; 
but he knew the rinity of Mind with an absolute' 
certainty, which is independently cf confirmaticn by 
physical science. It is only the spiritually degenerate 
who need the Incarnatian. Patriarchs and prophets 
saw the Christ by spiritual vision. 

One of the greatest errors of reUgious teachers is 
that which permits men to believe in the possibility 
of passive happiness or spiritual health... It may 
seem an indication of the highest spiritual life to 
sing:— 

*'0h to be over yonder, 
In that bright land cf wonder, 
Where the angel voices mingle, and die nngcl 

harps do ring! 
To be free from care and sorrow. 
And the anxious dread to-morrow, 
To rest in light and sunshine in the presonre 

of the Kingr' 

The sentiment is really unhealthy, or is evidence 
of weakness, and is that of a person who reclines 
languidly on a couch for fear of exhausting the 
strength, when the true way to preserve and to 
increase the strength is by v;orking all the muscles 
up to their fullest capacity. Neither the intellect 
nor the emotion can be healthy unless the v.ill is 
regularly exercised up to its highest capacity in 
performing works in harmonv with the Archetypal 
Will. 



The symbolical pictures may have taught this 
truth by a Blazing Star placed in contrast v.ith a 
cold spot of dead Hght; and since the Blazing Star 
indicated a living active mind, it was especially 
appropriate to symboUse the Emotional Archetype — 
the Life of the world. Moses taught that God 
-demands action in His servants when he described 
God as speaking out of a bush that burned without 
being consumed. It is false and pernicious doctrine 
to say that any man is a Christian loecause he gratifies 
himself by going to church, and if^peating prayers, 
and listening to sermons, aftd attefidihg sacraments. 
Unless a man displays by his work that his will is 
in harmony with the will of the Christ, he is not a 
Christian. 

Jehovah, the Infinite Mind, commanded Adam to 
eat freely of every tree in the Garden, except that 
which the inward monitions of conscience taught him 
to regard as a source of shame and evil. Those who 
try to discover the origin and nature of man for 
themselves, without the guidance of the primitive 
teacher, become the victims of every delusive gleam 
of fight that flickers over the jungle of disordered 
fancies, in which they seek a path of dcHverance 
from ignorance and error. Some think it sinful to 
be merry; some dread to appear in rich apparel; 
some fancy they deserve special praise for living in a 
<5ave, or for appearing extremely wretched. Some 
even fancy the Creator will be pleased to see them 
as silent » isolated beings, partaking of none of the 



pleasures of life, arid even torturing or mutilating 
themselves. Some refuse to eat pork; others would 
forbid the eating of any kind of flesh; some denounce 
the use of alcohol, while others - lament the ruin 
produced by slavery to tea. Tobacco and opium 
have been regarded as equalin importance to the 
Tree of Life by teachers who forget that truth and 
love do not vary with food and drink. ''Not that 
which entereth into the mouth defile th a man; but 
that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth 
the man.'' 

The seer of the Apocalypse proclaimed that the 
leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the 
nations. The thoughts, emotions, and actions which 
are produced by the pure mind have the attainment 
of harmony with the Divine Mind as the central 
object, and are sources of happiness and delight, 
tending to banish all the wickedness arid cruelty 
from which the nations su er. The only hope for 
humanity is in the minds working in obedience to 
the Elohim; for they have the consciousness of the 
possession of the kingdom of heaven in the centre of 
the Garden of the Soul. 

The Sacred Books of the East are founded upon 
the teachings of Adam, but, ovving to the absence of 
central authority and responsibility, the tribes who 
wandered to India and China permitted foolish 
commentators and teachers to add their own fancies 
and theories; so that an enormous mass cf confused 
and contradictorv observations and discussions 



almost totally obscured the original truth. God was 
with all who sought Him in every nation; but the 
Levites were more faithful than the Erahmans, and 
allowed nothing to be added to the sacred writings 
without solemnly consulting Jehovah. The Hebrev/s 
knew that no man could see truth except when con- 
scious of the inspiration of Jehovah. The Braha ns 
ceased to worship Jehovah, so that they had no 
prophets among them, and every writer depended 
on himself, with the inevitable result of producing 
confusion. 

The Hebrew Scriptures begin by stating that 
L M created all things. The Sacred Books of 
the East begin by saying, ''Let a man worship the 
syllable A U M.^' 

The importance attached to the syllable A U M 
in the Vedas seems to be as puzzUng to translators 
as the meaning of the syllable L M in the Bible. 
It is plain that the two are essentially the same, 
and signify the Divine Mind. 

Monier Williams, in his Uttle work on Hindoism, 
says that the Yoga system has for its object the 
teaching of the means by which the human soul 
may attain complete union with the Universal Soul; 
and that repetition of the mystic monosyllable A U M 
is supposed to be all-efficacious in giving knowledge 
of the Supreme, and preventing the obstacles to 
Yoga. He adds, 'The Yoga system appears, in fact, 
to be a mere contrivance for getting rid of all thought, 



or rather for concentrating the mind with the utmost 
intensity upon nothing in particular/' 

It is never safe to assume that a man does not 
himself knov/ what he means because we are unable 
to understand him. We may be ignorant or stupid 
Concentration of the thoughts upon Gcd is the 
highest act of intelligence, and is a source of delight 
so intense that when once experienced there is 
nothing whatever that seems of equal importance. 

Max MuUer, in his introduction to the translation 
of the Upanishad, proves that he had pov.er to 
sympathise with the devout Brahmans, and that he 
knew nothing of what Goethe meant by saying that 
it is in the Nothing we must find the All. The 
physical symbol of the A U M may be said to be 
the ether; and how many even among the greatest 
teachers of science have ever abstracted thought 
sufficiently from the material to grasp in imagination 
any notion of that which is spoken of as the source 
of all matter and of all force; but which can neither 
be weighed, nor measured, nor Umited in any way? 
It is necessary to get into the region of Nothingness 
before we can think of the ether, the vibration of 
which is supposed to produce in us the sensation of 
light; and yet A U M is behind the ether, and 
" employs it as His agent. 

Max MuUer says, 'The Highest Self, which had 

become to the ancient Brahmans the goal of all their 

•mental efforts, was looked upon at the same time 

as the starting-point of all phenomenal existence the 



root of the world, the onl}^ thing that could really 
be said to be, to be real and true." The Bible 
teaches the same of L M. 

The highest aim of the Brahman of the Upanisha-d 
was to recognise his own self as a mere limited 
reflection of the Highest Self, and through that 
knowledge to return to it, and regain his identity 
with it. What is this but the teaching that man 
was made in the Image of God? In the Psalms we 
find it stated, ''I have said ye are gods (elohim), and 
ye are all the children of the Most Highest." God' 
the L M, is in the congregation of the 1 o m, and 
is the Judge of the 1 o m. The Ideal Mind is wor- 
shipped by the imperfect human mind. The finite 
mind worships the Infinite Mind. 

A U M is to the Brahmans the essence of every- 
thing, the living principle of everything. Paul says 
that in God, the L M of the Hebrews, we Uve and 
move and have our being. By the Brahm.an, he 
who meditates on A U M is said to meditate on the 
spirit of man as identical with the Infinite Spirit. 
All sacrifice and ceremonies are of no avail in the 
end, and knowledge of A U M can alone produce 
true salvation or true immortality. This is the 
teaching of the Vedas, and is very different from 
what is generally supposed to be Hindoo dependence 
on priests and ceremonies. It is the teaching of 
Adam which is repeated by Moses and Christ. Only 
the Vedas speak of God as A U M, and the Hebrews 
as L M; the difference being due to tk£ accident 



of t!he neglect of a teacher to make the closure of a 
vowel sound with sufficient distinctness to form the L. 
Christ warned his disciples to let no man nor cere- 
mony come between the individual and Jehovah, 
and to call no man a spiritual father ; though ^^ e 
owe the deepest gratitude to teachers who help us to 
know God. 

There is no possible way by which God coukl have 
revealed himself to Adam alone as Jehovah, the 
Loving Saviour. The normal man is devoid of fear 
under ordinary circumstances. If God had brought 
terrible crushing calamities upon him in order to 
evoke gratitude, the man would have shrunk from 
his Creator as from a capricious tyrant. Eve ?lone^ 
could reveal the Creator as Jehovah. When the man 
stood in blank despair, unable to give any help in 
her extremity to the woman on whom all his earthly 
hopes and affections were centred, her agonised cry 
went up to Heaven; but she did not utter the Mystic 
Syllable revealed by the calm inquiring spirit of 
Adam. Her cry was Ye-O-A; and women, in their 
hour of dire uncertainty and fearful hope; still utter 
the same cry to God when free from the unnatural 
restraint imposed by conventional hypocrites and 
artificial surroundings. 

The cry ye-o-a was followed by the birth of a son; 
and in their grateful adoration of the Author of 
all life the joyful parents cherished as sacred the 
cry which had brought them comfort and blessing. 
L M was regarded as Jehovah, the Perec na] 



Saviour and Comforter. Every true man feels hy 
instinct that the cry of a woman in travail is some- 
thing to be kept sacred from vulgar comment; and 
the ancient Hebrews v/hen reading the Scriptures 
always refrained from attempting to utter the word 
Jehovah. It is profanity to attempt to limit by 
conventional pronunciation the cry of a suffering 
soul to God; yet modern teachers discuss whether 
Javeh is not the proper spelUng! 

Man will most readily worship the Elohim as 
Power, Intellect, Wisdom, Justice; but feels his 
pride mortified when he has to confess his need by 
worshipping Jehovah, the Merciful. The appeal for 
mercy and help seems to be wrung from him against 
his will. Woman seems to feel that it is her especial 
prerogative to be the revealer of Jehovah, and the 
worship which seems so difficult and distasteful to a 
strong man satisfied with himself is easy and delight- 
ful to the noblest woman. When a woman does not 
worship God as the Personal Saviour, she is certain 
to be a curse instead of a blessing to any m.an who 
trusts to her for assistance and comfort in his distress. 

The first step towards the formation of the alphabet 
would never have been taken, and there could never 
have been any knowledge of theology, or law, or 
religion, or science, or art, if the first man and woman 
had not been created perfect, so that they might be 
able to reveal the true foundations upon which their 
fallen descendants could with safety build. Until 
he knows himself as the child of God man not only 



remains oh the level of the brutes, but has a per- 
versity of disposition which leads to degradation and 
internecine warfare, so that his extinction is inevit- 
able. The brute creation is preserved by the instinct 
which guards the purity of the females, whereas the 
human female becomes the destroyer of the race. 
Eve must either be the revealer of Jehovah or the 
serpent poisoning the springs of life. 

The animal can never know its self, since it has 
no spirit. Mali must know his self or dit. Know- 
ledge of himself can only be in proportion to know- 
ledge of his Creator; and the Creator can only 
be revealed in a Perfect Man. Each degraded man 
has his own degraded conceptions, and no agreement 
as to what is best is possible; but each has sufficient 
of the original insight to enable him to recognise the 
Ideal when revealed by Adam. Each must neces- 
sarily see the Ideal in an imperfect manner, according 
to his own peculiar defects and his limited field of 
vision; yet all who are willing to learn from the Bible 
can be shown sufficient of the revealed Perfect Form 
to guide them in harmonious work for the restoration 
of Eden. 

''Holy Bible, book Divine, 
Precious treasure, thou art mine: 
Mine, to teach me whence I came; 
Mine, to tell me what I am.'' 



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LBAg'05 



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Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proce! 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2004 

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